I talk about air quality a lot — I probably sound like a broken record at this point. But it bears repeating: the quality of the air we breathe impacts our bodies much more than we realize. We think about what we eat and what we drink. We’ve even started counting the number of steps with take in a day in order to improve our health.

But we don’t think enough about the quality of the air we’re breathing. We inhale 15,000 litres of air every day, which equals 20,000 breaths. But unless the air quality is obviously bad, we don’t really think about it.

My son, Mike Jr., recently shared a study with me called The Indoor Generation Report, about our awareness surrounding air quality. Let me tell you, I was blown away by the statistics.

Around 1,000 Canadians were asked how much time they spend indoors. On average, their answers stated that they believe they spend 68 per cent of their time indoors. A pretty large percentage (it makes sense, considering our climate) — but the reality is a statistic that’s much higher. We have become an indoor generation who spends 90 per cent of our time inside! Why do you think it’s so important that we consider the quality of our indoor air? In some cases, the quality of our air inside our home can be more polluted than the outside — but many Canadians (seven out of ten polled) didn’t know that.

Cleaning up our indoor air

Everyday home activities, such as cooking, cleaning, showering, lighting candles, drying clothes and even sleeping and breathing, all contribute to polluted indoor air.

The average home contains materials that can potentially release toxins into our indoor air, like volatile organic compounds (VOCs). VOCs are found in a number of items from plastic toys, to building materials — and they can off-gas into our homes for years after they’re installed. While there are many products on the market that offer low or, even better, no traces of VOCs, in some cases they’re unavoidable. So what can we do about them, while improving our indoor air?

Short of spending all our time outdoors — which, let’s face it, most of us can’t do with our jobs or home life — we need to better manage our indoor lives. So here are a few things that you can do to really help improve the quality of the indoor air in your home:

Open your windows at least three to four times a day to allow the fresh air in and open your blinds to let the sun/natural light into your home

Keep bathroom doors closed and turn on the exhaust fan or open a window when you are showering — I usually set mine to run for 30 minutes after a shower

Turn the hood fan on when you’re cooking and open your windows

Don’t burn candles (or save them for those romantic occasions)

Clean regularly with environmentally friendly products and vacuum baseboards and edges of walls

Clean your home fans and air ducts as least twice a year

Use hypoallergenic air filters in your HVAC systems and air purifiers — and remember to check and change them often (at least every three months).

Making it right for our kids

As a father and grandfather, I’m naturally protective of my family — just like any good dad would be. I’ve been learning about how children’s bedrooms can often be the most polluted room in the house. Living in a damp, mouldy home can increase the risk of asthma by 40 per cent, so it’s important to take steps to protect our most vulnerable family members.

Like I mentioned before, it may be impossible to remove VOCs and other toxins from our homes completely, but by renovating with indoor air quality in mind, we can take steps to reduce them drastically.

When you’re renovating, choose upgrades that promote healthier indoor environments for your kids. Start with the lumber, and find products that are mould and fire resistant.

When it comes to your choice of drywall, there are products on the market that actually absorb VOCs that off-gas in your home, and converts them into safe, inert compounds. It’s smart — and it promotes healthy air for you and your kids. To me, it just makes sense.

We may be the indoor generation, but summer is almost here and I encourage all of us to get outside as much as we can. There’s nothing like a warm, sunny day to lift our spirits.

Watch Mike Holmes in his series, Holmes Makes It Right, on HGTV. For more information, visit makeitright.ca.

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